Mind the gap

Next time you’re in London, stepping off the underground train at Piccadilly Circus, beware: one false step and you may find yourself sandwiched between the platform and the train. Mind the gap. The station was built more than a hundred years ago. Nowadays we don’t do things that way. The consumer is king, and s/he better not fall through the cracks.

A similar thing has happened in my lab. The first time I set a particular assignment three years ago I left a big gap between the instructions and the desired product. I did this intentionally so that students would really have to think about the material and wrestle with it in order to reach a solution. Over the semesters however my instructions have gradually gotten smoother, the gap has been filled in ever so slightly, the assignment easier to complete: easier for the students to go through the motions on a better posted path, easier for the professor to give factual answers in place of Socratic dialogues.

This is an unfortunate development. Heath & Heath (1) discuss the “Gap Theory” of Curiosity proposed by Loewenstein (2): “It is surprisingly simple. Curiosity happens when we feel a gap in our knowledge”. Computer game designers always keep the gamer wondering what will happen in the next 5 seconds. I sometimes worry that I could stop talking mid-sentence and not a single student in the class would be wondering what is coming next. Cialdini gives great examples of using mystery stories in teaching to stimulate the curiosity gap (3).

Watch out though. Too much of a good thing and you’ll lose your audience. When you get to King’s Cross station there’s a big gap between the first 8 platforms and platforms 9-11 tucked way back to the left. If you miss the midnight train to Cambridge that always leaves from platform 10c, you won’t end up in Hogwarts, you’ll end up spending a lousy night on a public bench.

Benjamin de Foy, Saint Louis University. 22 April 2011.

1. “Made to Stick, Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die”, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Random House, 2007. Though not specifically about teaching, this is a great resource. Check out their website for an 11 page summary: “Teaching that sticks”.

2. “The Psychology of Curiosity: A Review and Reinterpretation”, George Loewenstein, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 116, No. 1, pp. 75-98, 1994.

3. “What’s the best secret device for engaging student interest? The answer is in the title”, Robert B. Cialdini, Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 22-29, 2005.